3 ms·
People are always shocked at the stupid mistakes that big criminal masterminds make. Like the Silk Road guy, "how could he possibly ask on stack overflow using
by 21 8y ago
People are always shocked at the stupid mistakes that big criminal masterminds make.
Like the Silk Road guy, "how could he possibly ask on stack overflow using his real name".
And so on.
There are ten thousands different mistakes that you can make, you need to guard against all of them. And against whatever unknown tech exists.
In this story, that dropped bank card turns out to not be that significant. The real breakthrough was identifying another mule through the video surveillance videos, following him to the airport and putting surveillance on the lockers used to store the cash.
He was also emptying ATMs apparently with witnesses behind him. This is like a bad movie. One of those witnesses might as well be an off-duty cop who could just pull out his gun right there.
- mv4 8y ago... or the Russian FSB officer forgetting all about VPN and logging on from his office. [1] People make stupid mistakes. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16653671 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16653671
- sudouser 8y agoguccifer, lone hacker = russian authorities
- philjohn 8y agoThe criminals have to be lucky continually - the detectives only need to be lucky once.
- greggarious 8y ago>Like the Silk Road guy, "how could he possibly ask on stack overflow using his real name". I always had the impression that Ross suffered from the fatal flaw that he didn't think what he was doing was wrong. He was an evangelical libertarian, and I think he didn't see "not getting caught" as the #1 priority the way a profit oriented criminal would.
- maxerickson 8y agoIsn't not getting caught sort of part and parcel of silk road style evangelism?
- TACIXAT 8y agoI think the biggest thing is you don't realize how big something will get. You talk about an idea you're working on in IRC or ask a question on stack overflow while you're toying with the idea, then clean up later when it (surprisingly) takes off.
- kolpa 8y agoIf that was the flaw, then why did he try so hard to remain anonymous?
- greggarious 8y agoDoes posting under your real name about drugs and bitcoins constitute "trying hard?" :)